But… I thought it was time to switch things up a bit and add something with a bit more color, fresh flavors and crunch. Otherwise, I may just come out of this winter hibernation with no vitamins remaining in my system and not a single pair of jeans in the closet that fit.

This Southwest Chicken Salad with fresh pico de gallo is just that dish to break out of that fall/winter eating rut. Lots of bright, fresh vegetable flavors, using produce that is widely available year round – cherry tomatoes, romaine, avocado, and cilantro. Don’t those flavors just make you think of a bright, cheery, sunny day? We can pretend…

The chicken breasts are rubbed in a chipotle chili powder, for a slightly spicy, smoky flavor, canned black beans are thrown into the mix, and a fresh lime vinaigrette finishes the whole thing off. I may just survive the winter slump with this dish in my arsenal.

What’s in a Southwest Chicken Salad?

Romaine Lettuce

Chipotle Seasoned Chicken Breast

Black Beans

Avocado

Pico de Gallo

What Dressing Goes with Southwest Salad?

I made a zesty lime vinaigrette to top this Southwest Chicken Salad. It’s a simple combination of lime juice, olive oil and cilantro with a pinch of salt and pepper.

If you loved this Southwest Chicken Salad I would appreciate it so much if you would give this recipe a star review! Also, be sure to snap a picture of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagramusing the hashtag #platingsandpairings and tagging me @platingsandpairings.

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine ½ tablespoon olive oil, chili powder, lime zest, and a large pinch of salt. Rub the mixture onto the chicken breasts, coating well on all sides.

In a large pan, over medium heat, warm 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Once hot, add ¾ the red onion, and cook until softened, approximately 5 minutes. Add black beans, cumin, oregano, and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and set aside. Wipe the skillet clean.

Add an additional ½ tablespoon olive oil to the now clean skillet. Heat over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove to a plate, cover with foil and let rest 5 minutes.

Vinaigrette:

Whisk together the lime juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil and half the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Pico de Gallo:

Toss together the tomatoes, jalapeno, remaining red onion and remaining cilantro. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

23 comments

This looks like a delicious light lunch! I do love food-themed costumes! One of my son’s friends went as bacon, another as a set of ketchup and mustard. I wonder if the people you saw dressed up as salt shakers had significant others that were dressed up as pepper shakers?

I really appreciate that this recipe is a sensible portion. As a single person I often come across recipes that feed a family of five, not a reasonable amount of food for dinner and lunch the next day.

I am SO looking forward to trying this! Pinning for sure! Thank you for sharing!

We had a wet Halloween trick-or-treating, but we still had a lot of fun. Our kids were Iron Man and Minnie Mouse this year, and I have to say that they were pretty cute. 🙂 We didn’t see any food costumes while we were out — just a lot of superheroes!

Awesome!! I used 4 chicken breasts, doubled all the sauce ingredients except the sugar and red pepper flakes. I also used applesauce in place of the juice b/c thats what I had. We ran out of soy sauce so I only put in about 3/4 cup total…it was plenty!! Thanks for an awesome recipe.

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